Bakin' & Eggs: I Am Unimpressed

I will start by saying that the two people who own Bakin' & Eggs seem very nice. However, I'm afraid the experience leaves a lot to be desired.

On Sunday morning (errr, afternoon), Keelyn, Jenny and I decided we wanted some French toast. I'd been wanting to try Bakin' & Eggs for a while and it's pretty close to our house, so we moseyed on over. Our first impressions were that the place was cute -- and crowded. We were told there'd be a 30 minute wait. We were okay with that.

We somehow found ourselves involved in the cluster that was the line while trying to order something to drink. The iced tea I had was good, but it's no juice bar. Keelyn's lemonade was straight up Minute Maid. Jenny tried to get some coffee, but they were out of anything decaf that they could make iced. (And it was about 95 degrees out, so hot was not happening.)

We waited for quite some time and were just goofing around until someone noticed it'd been way over half an hour. So Jenny went to investigate. (Naturally.) Somehow there was another Nancy who'd put her name down on the list and they'd seated her instead of us -- and then completely forgotten about us. Hmm, this was not instilling confidence in the coming experience, but wasn't a deal-breaker.

Our server, however, was. She was terrible. Not just someone who's new, but trying hard. No, more like completely disengaged and awful. We were looking for her at multiple times during the meal, often to no avail. And having been one myself, I cut servers a lot of slack. It's not like she was running around to a million other tables. She was literally nowhere to be found. And when we were able to interact with her, the experience could be described as mystical at best. It was like she was on another planet. Perhaps she was just having a bad day, but it certainly didn't do our brunch any favors.

And then there were the utensils. The silverware was filthy. There was a piece of onion the size of a silver dollar on Jenny's spoon. And the rest of her utensils looked a little mangy, too.

When our food came, it was just okay. Even the maple pepper bacon, which you'd think would be one of their specialties given the play on it in the resto's name, was really nothing special. The jam they gave us was completely liquified, which was interesting -- but not in a good way. After eating two pieces of toast with liquid jam and deciding this was probably not a foray into some sort of misguided molecular gastronomy, I asked for some more. The next batch was a more normal consistency. I'm guessing the first round probably just got too hot, but it was another of many disappointing factors in the experience. (Especially since Keelyn pinpointed the toast as the highlight of her breakfast.)

That said, the true best part of the meal came at the end. When we went up to pay -- and correct them for the miscellaneous extra charges that had been placed on our bill mysteriously, perhaps by the server's extraterrestrial buddies? -- the owner had told the cashier to let us each pick out a cookie from the cases filled with adorable looking baked goods. Really, all of the baked goods looked amazing. But after our experience with the food we'd already ordered, I would never have bought one. However, given the ability to select a cookie for free, I was happy to do so.

And after sampling all three of our choices -- chocolate ginger, peanut butter and peanut butter chocolate chip -- I am pleased to say that the baked goods are where it's at with Bakin' & Eggs. These cookies were excellent. After further investigation, I learned that Bakin' & Eggs is affiliated with Lovely: A Bake Shop on Milwaukee in Bucktown.

I wouldn't go back to Bakin & Eggs for brunch, but I would definitely go back to pick up some of their cookies to go. And I'd happily try some of the additional baked offerings in the future as well. However, if the Lakeview location isn't convenient for you, I'd recommend just swinging over to the original Lovely in Bucktown. I know I plan to explore that venue as well. To learn more about Lovely, visit their cute website here.